


Caged Lion

by god-heda (ChocDog)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Chaptered, Drug Use, Eventual Smut, F/F, Hate to Love, Love/Hate, Minor Violence, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Slow Build, Spoilers, like a shitton, lots of kinks, mentions of beruannie, smut is skippable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-08-17 00:44:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8124025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocDog/pseuds/god-heda
Summary: She betrayed humanity. She murdered her own former comrades. She locked herself up in a crystal for months to withold information. Now she's rotting away in a cell, the torture and bordom only deepening her hate for humanity. She says nothing, does nothing, and is worth nothing. She's the enemy of mankind.But there's not a chance in hell Mikasa is letting her be killed.





	1. Brutal mercy

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first ever fic on here, and for SnK, so please excuse the shittiness. Hopefully it'll impove throughout the story, which should be updated weekly :)

Red had always been one of Annie’s favourite colours.

It had an explosive passion to its hue that even one as arrogant as she could admire, loud enough that avoiding it once it was in her view was a mission in itself. It stained the streets after a brawl outside a pub, it had rained down from the sky during the Titan invade, it coated and dried itself on the raw skin around her wrists where her handcuffs had been locked just a tad too tight.

It was a warrior’s colour; a Leonhart’s colour.

But in darker shades, Annie came to associate it with less intensity. Once the fire had been dampened to a burned maroon, she stopped thinking of it as the blazing heart of a warrior, but rather his scorched flesh after a loss. It was closer to the shade of Eren’s hot Titan skin as he loomed over her, ready to destroy.

Despite their similar tones, Annie found deeper reds to be the opposite of their brighter counterparts. While one meant strength, the other was a weakness.

The sound of footsteps descending the stairs to the dungeon could be heard, brisk yet relaxed enough to only belong to one person. The soldiers were down here so much Annie had memorised almost everyone’s walking patterns. Today’s visitor was just shy of a full blown sprint; they were clearly rushing almost as much to see her as Hanji, who was always so excited to come down that she was practically tumbling down the stairs in her haste.

No, the soldier today wasn't eager at all, rather in a rush to get it over with. The sooner she came in, the sooner she got out. Annie knew that was the only reason she was walking down here so fast, her boots thumping down hard on the stone floor of the dungeon, sounding surprisingly heavy for someone she knew was so light. 

She appeared quickly, barely any time passing from when her footsteps could only just be heard above her, to now, her slim frame waltzing past the bars of Annie’s enclosure without sparing a single glance her way, as if she was the most unimportant thing in the world. The blonde watched with narrowed eyes as she passed, a fabric stripe of that horrible colour wrapped tight around her neck. Annie flinched at the sight of it, memories of that day flooding back into her mind; her large Titan eyes locked on the girl stood on her nose, her fate sealed the moment those words left her mouth;

“Annie… Fall.”

Mixed in with cold flashbacks of her father, that disgusting maroon was the last thing she remembered seeing before she’d encased herself in her crystal, the image of the girl worth a hundred soldiers looking down on her as she fell to her potential death forever burned into her head. That scarf, that colour…

It was the colour of her defeat.

“I’ll take it from here.” Annie heard from outside her cell. She couldn’t see Mikasa or the guard she was speaking to; the prisoner sat cross legged on her bed at the back of the cell, cuffed hands clasped together in her lap, the same position she’d been sitting in for the majority of the time she’d been locked up. She only moved when it was necessary; she found the stillness to be somewhat therapeutic. As much as she’d rather be spending this time doing sit ups, push ups, pull ups and any other up she could do in order to keep in shape in this box, there was only so much one could do with both hands connected by a chain twenty-four seven.

“Great, thanks.” A quiet voice responded, followed by the sound of someone rising to their feet. Annie didn’t even look up as the guard who had been on watch for the past few hours took his leave, scurrying up the dungeon stairs and closing the door behind him with a heavy thud.

The dungeon was hardly a huge space; the staircase lead down into a single, short one-way corridor, with Annie’s cell built into one of the walls as to not affect the area’s space. The cell was close to but wasn’t quite in the corner of the room, with there being a small area between the bars and the end of the corridor, a bench set in the wall as well as some stools for whoever was on guard duty. The only light sources were a few torches mounted here and there, giving the space a dim but comfortable glow.

As Annie expected, Mikasa completely ignored the guard seating space at the left of the cell bars and dragged a stool over to the wall directly opposite Annie, sitting in line of sight of the prisoner. Of all her guards, Mikasa was the only one to just about never take her eyes off Annie. Some of them could complete their entire shift without checking her once, some would spend the first half on watch before getting bored and sitting down, and some shifted often between watching and relaxing as if they were paranoid about her pulling something; which a lot of them were.

Not Mikasa though. She spent her entire shift in front of Annie not because she was scared or nervous, but rather curious. Any time Annie moved, Mikasa’s head would snap up from the book she was probably reading and give her full attention, not wide-eyed and fascinated like Hanji tended to be, but certainly not uninterested. Even now the raven-haired girl watched Annie with an intrigued boredom, her arms crossed as she leaned her back against the wall, her eyes locked on Annie’s equally focused blue orbs. 

“Have you eaten?” Mikasa asked emotionlessly. 

Another one of her quirks. While she could often finish up with Annie without muttering a single word, when she did speak, it always meant something. Some other guards would actively attempt conversation, but Mikasa didn’t mind sitting in silence in the least. It was one of the reasons she was Annie’s favourite guard; she was no nonsense, no talking, they could both stay quiet and comfortable when she was here.

“Yes.”

It wasn’t that Mikasa cared for Annie, but rather she knew what trouble it would be if she starved to death. The girl knew through eavesdropping on her fellow elites that depriving Annie of the bare necessities like food and sleep were apparently worth a right ol’ chuckle, despite the lack of intelligence behind it. During her shifts Mikasa always made sure to feed Annie if she hadn’t already eaten, as they both knew there was a good chance it could be her only meal of the day.

Truth be told, Annie wasn't all that fussed whether she lived or died. Ever since breaking out of that crystal just over a week ago, all she’d done was wait patiently for them to realise she was useless, and subsequently end her life. She’d admitted with her hands up in the air upon emerging the crystal, guns pointed at her from every direction, she had no intention to harm humanity any more than she already had. However, she was also unwilling to help the Survey Corps in any way, whether that be becoming a Titan-shifting soldier like Eren, or even just leaking important information on the enemy. 

Of course, the Survey Corps commander would have none of that, and had opted to keep her in a cage until she had a change of mind. The decision had caused quite a bit of unrest within the military, with many deeming it uneconomic to waste food on someone who was more or less useless. While the guards had been instructed to act like they were indeed gaining information out of Annie, it didn’t take long before the entire military knew they were wasting their time and energy in all those torture sessions.

It had been a day or so since the last one, and Annie cursed under her breath as she realised she was due for one very soon. She was not scared, rather annoyed. The scars and bruises from the last time were only just starting to heal; her regeneration power had been exhausted over the past few days to the point where her healing times were only just faster than a regular human’s.

Oh well. She decided to play by Mikasa’s logic. The sooner it started, the sooner it ended.

“Are you gonna get it over with or not?” She invited, throwing her legs over the edge of the bed and rising to her feet. She was clad in only her underwear and her signature white hoodie, although it was really more of a dark grey colour now. She’d been permitted to keep it solely because she wouldn’t wear anything else, and the chances of her freezing down here were simply too high to let her live in next to nothing.

Mikasa made a face that would have been surprise on anyone else, but on her it was more just sudden interest. “What makes you think it’s my turn?” She responded, an eyebrow raised.

The blonde didn’t answer but instead walked right up to the bars of her cell, gripping the metal with her cuffed, blood-stained hands. “I’m asking you.” She stated coldly. “Just do it.”

“You should’ve asked the last guard.”

“I want you to do it.”

Mikasa stood up suddenly, her eyes never leaving the icy blue ones below her as she stepped up to the bars, gripping them so her hands were just above Annie’s. 

“Why.”

Annie felt her eyebrows burrow in frustration, angry narrowed eyes glaring up at infuriatingly neutral ones. As good a guard as Mikasa was, even she had her flaws; she didn’t openly antagonise Annie like the other guards did, which really was mystery to everyone considering what she’d done to her precious brother. But she wasn’t on Annie’s side either. Yes she was civil, but the blonde knew the only reason Mikasa hadn’t slit her throat in her sleep was because of the information she held. If she was to one day decided to spill everything she could, Annie had no doubts Mikasa would be the first to volunteer for the final disposal of the Female Titan.

“You don’t talk so much.” Annie lied. While it was true Mikasa only asked the necessary questions when hurting her, there was far more reason for choosing her as her desired interrogator. Just about all the guards had tried their luck with her at least once, each of them failing to acquire anything no matter what they did to her. But of all of them, Annie had decided Mikasa’s torture was the least unpleasant.

“Why would I waste my energy on you, when we both know it won’t do any good?”

“So I can tell them you’ve already tried, so they don’t have to.”

“What makes you think they won’t anyway?”

“Because I’ll already be critically injured. And you bastards can’t kill m-“

A slim hand suddenly shot through a gap in the bars, fingers locking around Annie’s neck and silencing her immediately.

“It’s not that I can’t kill you. I can. Whenever I want.” Mikasa began, holding Annie with just enough pressure to restrict her breathing. 

Annie didn’t react in the slightest. “Then do it.”

“No.”

“Because you can’t.”

“Because I won’t.” 

"Pussy."

Mikasa squeezed tighter around her prisoner's neck, eyes narrowing. But it meant nothing, both girls knew Mikasa really was powerless; or rather, loyal to the military. She sighed and released her grip, humiliated to admit Annie’s tricks were working; she was trying, and succeeding, to annoy Mikasa enough that she took her anger out on her. 

It was a strange thing to desire, and it wasn’t exactly the nicest feeling in the world, but Annie preferred Mikasa’s calculated pain infliction infinitely better than some of the other guard’s sick torture techniques. Annie may have thrown her life away but she definitely still had at least a little pride; being groped and prodded by perverted military men on power trips was not only certain to produce no results, but was so damn uncomfortable she had to bite her tongue to keep from lashing out at them.

“Funny how you call me such a cowardly term, Annie, you ran away from both your sides. You won’t help us or your people. I think it is you who is the coward.”

“Damn right!” Annie laughed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I gave up. And you should too. Come on, kill me Mikasa, give up this pathetic soldier act.”

The taller girl’s lip thinned into a line as she witnessed Annie succumb to yet another one of her psychotic episodes. Just like the scene prior to her transformation in Stohess district, a deep red blush had spread across her giggling face, her big blue eyes wide and glistening teeth exposed as she cackled.

“Oh, you won’t kill me, because you’re such a good solider…” Annie breathed, her body starting to shake as the hellish images started flickering through her vision. “What the fuck is a good soldier…? The only good you dickheads are doing is sitting around while your fellow humans are out destroying each other. Hell, you’d have less to worry about if you were running around outside the walls with them.”

Mikasa did not question how her prisoner knew of the current violence situation within the walls, she didn’t even comment on the words used to address herself and her comrades. Despite everything this girl had put her and what remained of her family through, a minuscule amount of pity for the broken warrior before her tugged at her heart, but as small as it was it was enough. 

With a defeated sigh, Mikasa reached for her keys and let herself into the cell, not bothering to lock it behind her or grab her torture equipment. Annie turned to face her, but before the blonde could get a single word in a hard fist was smashed into her cheek, her legs buckling beneath her as Mikasa’s sweeping kick collided with her ankles.

Once she had fallen, the soldier pushed her boot down on Annie’s head, the side of her face pressing the floor. “If you tell me something useful, I won’t beat you.” Mikasa offered softly, secretly hoping Annie would finally let her tongue slip and save them both the trouble despite knowing how impossible that was.

From under her foot, Mikasa heard a tired chuckle. “No.” The fallen girl refused.

Mikasa just shrugged and stepped away from Annie, further into the cell. She knew next kick would hurt more if she had a running start.


	2. Memories

“That’s a hell of a lot of liquor, four-eyes.” Levi commented, watching Hanji from across the room as she sat at her desk, filling up another flask.

The commander grinned and nodded, but didn’t bother looking up; she’d seen Levi’s bored expression enough to know exactly what he currently looked like. “Because the Female Titan has a hell of a lot of attitude!” She remarked suddenly, dropping the now empty whiskey bottle down and closing the flask up, securing it in the open briefcase on her desk.

"Oh? Is that was this is for? You think you can get her drunk enough that she’ll start spilling everything?” Levi asked, standing up from where he’d been sitting; on a stool in the back of the office. The captain was one of Annie’s guards himself, and he knew from personal experience how tough she was. He of course found it formidable, albeit extremely annoying.

“Not quite.” Hanji answered, sealing up her briefcase and preparing to leave. “I’m just going to try mellowing her down a bit. She’ll probably be easier to negotiate with if she’s had a little taste of this, no?” 

“She might also be an angry drunk.” Levi retorted, stepping over to his superior. “What will you do if that shit makes her go berserk and turn into a Titan?”

“That won’t happen.” Hanji responded, trying her hardest to sound cheerful but Levi could hear the fatigue in her voice. “We’ve been literally destroying the girl for almost two weeks now, if she wanted to become a Titan and try to kill us all, she would’ve done it by now.”

The woman turned on her heel to leave, her hand just resting on the doorknob when Levi piped up again with yet another comment:

“This is all just a waste of our time and resources, Hanji.” The small man began with a sigh. “We should just kill her.”

“If we just kill her, we learn nothing about them.”

“Even when she’s alive we’re learning nothing.” He growled back, growing more and more agitated.

Hanji looked back at him, a reassuring smile on her features. “Give it time, Levi. Have some faith in-“

“Face it, four-eyes. She’s suicidal, the murderer of our comrades, and likely to pop off and make a Titan-sized mess at any time. She’s useless.” Levi snapped. “Erwin would’ve realised that and disposed of her by now.”

In an instant, Hanji’s face fell and was replaced by a look of pure disappointment that mirrored the other elite’s. Her heart sank as her head began connecting the dots, but it wasn’t much of a puzzle to begin with; it was just one she had never expected the need to solve.

Humanity’s strongest hadn’t been very reliant on anyone really since Erwin’s death, despite his efforts to hide it almost everyone could tell he was rather shaken up. But Hanji had never even considered that his trust issues spread to her too.

“Levi,” She began coldly. “I don’t care what Erwin would’ve done because Erwin isn’t the commander anymore. I am. And he’s not here to tell me what is and isn’t a waste of time.”

Before Levi could interject, she continued. “And I won’t stand here and listen to you try and tell me either. This is what I have chosen to do. And whether you like it or not you will play along because you are part of the Survey Corps and that is your job.”

Levi’s expression hadn’t changed in the least. He let Hanji leave after that, not a pound of guilt or regret in his mind. After all, he might’ve been willing to follow Erwin to the ends of the earth, but there was a limit to his obedience under Hanji’s command. 

Another few weeks, he decided. After that, he’d end this operation; one way or another.

\----------

It was no surprise to Mikasa to walk into an empty dungeon yet again, the only inhabitants being Annie and herself. Yet of course she had to know why and exactly who had walked out; they may have escaped a couple of hours of boredom but nothing was going to save them from the couple of days’ worth of aching after Mikasa had dished out the punishment for incompetence. 

Leaving Annie unattended was not only endangering the lives of just about everyone in the town, but also plain unfair in Mikasa’s opinion; the girl by now had earned at least one guard watching her, what a terrible feeling to know that you’re bordering on worst criminal behind the walls but they still can’t spare you any time.

“Where’s your guard?”

“The pub.”

“He came here drunk.” Mikasa assumed.

"Very."

Annie watched from her cross-legged position on the bed as Mikasa pulled up a stool, sitting exactly where she had been yesterday. She could hardly make out the bruises on Annie’s body in the small light, but she knew they were there; bruises, cuts, probably broken bones too. They’d heal in no time, but Mikasa couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt knowing that they’d ache well into the night, and it was her fault.

Perhaps that wasn’t the right word. It was her job, after all. Yet the strange remorse she felt made it difficult to dance around the sinful fire of the beating and torture as if it was all just ‘what needed to be done’, something she was usually excellent at doing. Mikasa was fully capable of murdering even her own fellow humans and even comrades to a degree, if it meant protecting her beloved Eren. And although extremely distantly, her brutal treatment of Annie was indeed helping to keep him safe, and Armin too; keeping the enemy weak and getting valuable information out of her would prove beneficial to her small family one day, she was sure of it. 

But even after constantly telling herself this, guilt still tickled her insides when carrying out her duty, even after everything. Even right now. She told herself that was just another reason to keep beating her, cutting her, getting close to killing her; she was a foreign tapestry of secrets and confusion waiting to be translated, she’d been playing Mikasa since day one.

In their training days, in her Titan form, in this cell of hers; Annie was a mystery. An infuriating, confusing, yet intriguing mystery. And Mikasa had nothing better to do down here than try and figure her out.

“Hey, Annie.” The soldier called out suddenly, causing the blonde’s head to snap up from its hanged position.

“What.” She responded, clearly irritated at the break in the peaceful silence.

“All day, you just sit there. You don’t even try to keep fit anymore. Don’t you find that lazy?”

Annie glared at her guard like she’d just asked if she wanted to go for a run outside the walls. She held her arms up, attempting to pull them more than a few inches apart, only to be denied by the short chain between the cuffs. “Exactly what do you suggest in terms of permanent-handcuff workouts?” She spat.

Mikasa waltzed up to the bars and examined the cuffs for a moment, it was the first time she’d really had a good look at them. She had to agree, they looked agonisingly limiting, not to mention painful. But certainly not as immobilising as Annie was making them out to be.

“Stand up.” Mikasa commanded as she let herself into the cell, locking it behind her. Annie snorted and threw the other girl an unamused look. Mikasa ignored it and repeated herself, standing stiff as a pole by the cell door.

Annie sighed and shook her head, but got up anyway, dangling her cuffed hands down lazily in front of her as she moved to stand across from Mikasa.

“What-“

Suddenly, the taller girl lashed out, her fist swinging around in a wide arc headed straight for Annie’s face. The blonde’s only reaction was the sudden widening of her previously half-lidded eyes, and the rising of the two arms she used to block the attack.

“What the fuck?!” Annie demanded Mikasa threw yet another punch, which didn’t get anywhere yet again. The soldier continued to assault Annie, her scarred fists clenched and arms constantly shifting to protect herself. The prisoner was using a broken shield however, her arms were still raw and bruised from yesterday’s beating, and each one of Mikasa’s strikes was more painful than the last. 

But the feeling; she might as well have been free again. It felt like years since Annie had even stood up, even though she’d only been down here just over a week, she’d done absolutely no exercise in all that time; even if it was just standing still and protecting herself at least this was getting her blood pumping.

And Mikasa, her flawless attacks, her focused gaze; as Annie stared at her through the gap between her raised arms she realised yet another reason why she was the best guard:

They’d missed this.

This was exactly what the two of them had done almost every day back in their training days, early in the morning or late at night, when no one could find them. Annie couldn’t remember exactly why they’d been so secretive, but she definitely recalled it all happening. Mikasa hadn’t changed at all; her technique was still exactly the same, not that there was anything that needed to be changed to begin with.

Now here they were, just the two of them, the only difference between now and then being their statuses. Back then, they were rivals. Equals. Now this was a spar between sworn enemies. Soldier and prisoner. Human and Titan.

By the time Annie’s arms began to burn and old memories began to weaken her even more, she’d decided she’d had quite enough. The next fist Mikasa threw did not collide with bruised flesh, but rather into two stable hands, which closed tight around the attack.

“That’s enough.” Annie declared, holding Mikasa’s fist still as she checked her face for any signs that it wasn’t over. Their eyes met only for a moment, before Mikasa nodded and stepped back, indicating the danger had passed. Annie released the fist and shook out her legs, which were rather tense from standing in that defensive stance for so long.

“Alright.” Mikasa began, pulling a small roll of bread out of her pocket. Annie’s eyes widened again at the sight of it, and she had no trouble at all catching it the second it left Mikasa’s fingers. “Eat that. You’re running on next to no sleep or food. Your arms could have been more stable just now.”

Annie gritted her teeth in annoyance at the comment, but accepted its truthfulness. While she munched away at the somewhat stale bread she watched Mikasa lower her body slightly and hold her open hands out in front of her, looking up at the blonde for once. “Your feet aren’t cuffed. We can work on your kicks now.”

Annie’s eyes lit up for a second, before they sunk back into that sullen expression once more at the sound of the metal dungeon door opening from the top of the stairs. Of course someone would interrupt now of all times. 

“Get out.” Annie muttered, moving to sit back on the bed as she polished off the remainder of the bread roll. “You’ll be punished if you’re caught in here without a valid reason.”

“I do have a reason.” Mikasa answered, not moving as hasty footsteps got louder and louder. “We were-“

“Just get out!” Annie suddenly snapped, her attempts to hide her disappointment failing. “I don’t want my one good guard to be banned from coming down here because she doesn’t watch me properly.”

Mikasa opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it again and obeyed once Annie’s words had sunk in. She was only just sitting back down at her post when Hanji appeared, as excited as always.

“Good evening Mikasa!” She greeted happily, skipping down the corridor.

“Commander.” The soldier replied, standing up and saluting as Hanji arrived. “She’s been as quiet as ever today.”

“I expected as much.” Said Hanji, completely unfazed. “No matter. Please feel free to take the rest of your shift off, I can take it from here.” She added, clicking her briefcase open on the bench by the wall, retrieving a shiny flask from it.

“Alright. Thank you.” Mikasa answered, sending Annie one final look. She watched the blonde somewhat reluctantly mouth a ‘thank you’, before nodding and taking her leave.

Annie sighed inwardly when the loud clang of the dungeon door closing rang out, signalling Mikasa’s departure. Although her arms still stung from the beating she’d let her guard give them, she wanted to move more, train more. She knew her death was imminent, and any ‘training’ was ultimately useless from this point on, but all these days of nothing but sitting were starting to take a toll on her. 

Back in the training days, she’d been out with Mikasa every day of the week, squeezing in extra training whenever she could. They’d raced, fought, wrestled, measured, and admittedly, flexed off, just to prove to the other who was superior. Somewhere down the line, Annie had forgotten what the real purpose to all that training was. But her reminders was always there, they hadn’t left her until she’d left them herself.

_“What’s with you and Mikasa?”_

_“We’ve been training. Ever heard of it, Reiner?”_

_“We do more than enough of that every day. Why her, why now?”_

_“She’s a good partner. She’s the only one in the Training Corps who can actually match me. You two sure as hell can’t.”_

_“But, Annie… You probably won’t ever fight anyone like her hand-to-hand like that, why do you keep practising?”_

_“Is that a serious question, Bertolt? Has all this soldier training replaced what Warchief Zeke taught you?”_

_“I could ask the same of you, Annie.” ___

Had it not been for that fateful intervention night before the 57th expedition outside the walls, Annie knew would’ve been unable to carry out her mission. 

“Hello Annie! How’re you doing today?” A voice called out, yanking the Titan shifter out of her daze. 

“Fine.” She answered briskly, pushing the memories back down. 

“That’s good! You and Mikasa seem to be getting along. Could you do me a big favour and come up to the bars please? I’ve got something for you.” 

Annie’s eyes narrowed in suspicion for a moment, but she eventually sighed and did as she was told, concluding that Hanji’s etiquette deserved at least some obedience. “What is it?” 

“Close your eyes and hold your hands out for me?” The taller woman continued, her hands held behind her back. 

A grunt of disapproval could be heard, but Annie obeyed anyway. She felt something cold and something that made a rustling sound be pushed into her hands, and upon hearing Hanji’s indication that she could, Annie opened her eyes again. 

“Uh…” 

“It’s high quality stuff in there, trust me. But please don’t down it all in one go and try and kill yourself, the most you’ll get is a sore tummy and a pounding headache, not too pleasant.” 

Annie stared down at the hip flask in her hand, deciding not to question it and sliding her gaze over to the next item: a bundle of hand-rolled cigarettes. Hanji spoke before Annie could even ask: “I heard from one of your training buddies that you’re a smoker, or at least you used to be. I rolled them all myself, my apologies if they’re not up to your standard.” 

Not a single member of the 104th Training Corps had witnessed Annie take a single puff from anything; she had always triple checked to make sure she was alone. But of course, no amount of privacy could isolate you from a shadow.  
“What did she say?” Annie mumbled, dropping both her deliveries into the kangaroo-pouch pocket in the front of her hoodie. 

“Hm?” 

“Mikasa. What did she say when she told you?” 

Hanji grinned. “You’re sure she’s the one who told me?" 

“Yes. There’s no one else who could’ve possibly known about this.” 

“Well, Annie…” The commander began, pulling Mikasa’s stool right up to the bars to sit down in front of the cell. “I talked to some of your training buddies, and some of them had quite a bit to say about you…" 


	3. News

Reluctant was a strong word. Mikasa much preferred to label the feeling as ‘slightly less willing’ in her stubborn brick of a head. But for the first of the many times she’d ascended these dungeon stairs, she wanted to turn back. She longed to see Annie’s short but perfect physique in action again, she wanted that girl to run, kick, punch, block, push, pull, and move.

How many hours had she just sat there, wasting all that destructive but powerful energy, potentially rekindling her hatred for mankind? How much longer would she wait, before she got bored enough to kill one of these guards, or worse?

Of course, if she did end up murdering one of her torturers while they were in her space, Mikasa knew that’d be the end of her. While that would certainly be a load off her shoulders, the soldier knew she’d miss it. There was something ethereal about being down in the dungeon with the girl, like reality altered just for the two of them when they were all alone, even though the majority of their time was spent in silence.

Today had been different. The feeling was still there, yet for the first time, Mikasa had Annie on her feet on her own accord. Not because she’d been yanked up by her hair prior to a beat down, but because she’d been told to. Not commanded to, which would yield no results, but just told. It dawned on Mikasa that Annie had shown hardly any resistance for once, instead of just scoffing and disobeying like when anyone else asked her to move.

Mikasa had seen it herself; what they do to her. It was no wonder Annie never listened to them. Why should she? Why should she listen to anyone, including Mikasa? Yet another mystery regarding the Female Titan.

Perhaps one day Mikasa would figure her out. One day, before she was finally disposed of. It was strange, but Mikasa didn’t look forward to that day like she used to now.

Meanwhile, back down in the deepest part of the room, Hanji had Annie genuinely interested in her for once. Deciding she needed some assistance to cope with what she was about to hear, Annie had gotten Hanji to light her cigarette on one of the room’s torches and was now holding it between her lips, silently waiting for the brunette in front of her to elaborate on what she’d brought up.

“You’re correct. Mikasa told me she’d seen you smoking more than once in the early hours of the morning while you two were still in training together.”

“What else did she say?” Annie answered, not bothering to remove the cigarette from her mouth.

“She said you loved to fight, but I already knew that one.” Hanji chuckled. “She was also, surprisingly, on team ‘Let’s Not Kill You Yet’” She added, pointing a finger at the girl in front of her.

Annie raised a thin eyebrow.

“I discussed what should happen to you with them, and luckily for you, a lot of them were in favour of trying to save you.”

The prisoner’s eyes widened in surprise, but before she could say a word Hanji continued. “I’ve opened up a case about you with the Government, just like what we did with Eren after the recapture of Trost district. I’m going to try and-“

“You’re wasting your time.” Annie spat, puffing out a large cloud of smoke right into Hanji’s face. “Even if you win, I can’t cooperate with you.”

She knew exactly where this was going; and wanted no part of it. Whether the consequences of that were death or endless torture, she didn’t care. All she knew was she had no options. This was where she’d ended up; Zeke hadn’t saved her, she was trapped, and she couldn’t even save herself, let alone humanity.

“Now why is that?” Hanji questioned, leaning forward on the stool to brace her elbow on her knee and rest her chin on her hand. “We can protect you if you promise to try and protect us.”

“You can’t.”

“I think-“

“You just can’t!” Annie interrupted Hanji again, not that the scientist was bothered. Realizing this was a sore subject, she ignored it and decided it was an endeavour for another day. 

“Regardless, Annie, I have gathered numerous people who will be joining me in court one month from now to fight for you. Mikasa included.”

Another surprise. Mikasa Ackerman was the best friend of the boy she’d almost killed, and the sister of the other boy she’d almost captured. That girl had every reason to want to rip Annie to shreds, yet now she wanted to save her?

Then again, as protective and vicious as Mikasa was, she was smart. Annie concluded that she was probably pushing her desire for vengeance aside to focus on humanities’ fight, which would be dramatically improved with another Titan shifter on their side.

That was the wrong word. Annie had no sides anymore.

“What happens if you win?” She asked, ashing her cigarette on the floor and returning it between her lips.

“The Survey Corps keeps custody of you. By that I mean me, so basically, you won’t die, which is what will happen if we lose and you go to the Military Police.”

“It’s Eren Yeager’s case repeated with a different shifter.” Annie confirmed.

“Sure is! Wow, I never thought I’d be in this position before…”

Although somewhat tempted to agree to help Hanji out, Annie knew it was out of the question: the second she put those Wings of Freedom on her back there’d be a knife through it. But she wouldn’t be killed, no, traitors don’t get killed. The torture would just resume, only ten times worse, before she’d be forced to send both herself and humanity back into a nightmare.

Perhaps it would be Reiner and Bertolt, it wouldn’t be the first time they’d had to remind Annie whose side she was supposed to be on. Annie winced at the memory of what she’d done to Marco, no, what those two bastards had let happen to Marco. Thinking back on it now, if her sinful life was over, they why should theirs continue?

“Reiner and Bertolt are the Armoured and Colossal Titan.” Annie stated calmly. “If you didn’t already know. You should kill them.”

“We know about them.” Hanji replied softly, her features growing dark at the thought of her last encounter with them. “And we already have, sort of. We got Bertolt.”

The blonde smiled, the first genuine one in months. One less of those beasts in this world was enough to brighten even her day. “Good.”

“Aren’t you upset? He was your comrade.”

“Fuck no.” Annie denied. “He was just like me, and the less of us there are, the better.”

Instantly, Hanji was on her feet. She stepped right up close and gripped the bars of the cell, her wide-eyed face protruding through the gaps causing Annie to recoil slightly. “Are you saying you hate the Titans? You hate yourself?”

Confused but understanding of the question, Annie nodded. “Yes.”

“And do you regret your actions? Do you wish you hadn’t done what you did?”

Annie glared at the woman as if she was stupid. “Of course, no one wants to do what we did. I didn’t want it to happen either, any of it. I just didn’t have a choice.”

That was all the Commander needed. Excusing herself, she scurried away and up the dungeon steps, her need to record her findings as desperate and as primal as Eren’s need to fight. Annie watched her leave, both bored and curious, her hands instinctively dropping into her pocket now that she was unoccupied.

Cold metal collided with her fingertips, and she pulled the offending flask out of her hoodie completely to get a proper look at it. With a shrug, she unscrewed the cap and took a small sip, the liquor burning at the back of her throat and sizzling on her tongue. 

She loved it.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Mikasa beat her two roommates to breakfast as she always did. The habit of waking up early was one she’d managed to acquire during her training days thanks to Annie and their morning spars, and naturally, it had stuck.

Mikasa didn’t mind. It gave her a chance to fix a meal for Eren and Armin, who were still asleep in the other room. The three of them had been given a small but comfortable house near the Survey Corps base by Historia, who had evicted several Military Police members and other suspicious persons since her coronation. The new large amount of unoccupied homes meant that many of the homeless and newly independent Survey Corps members now had places of their own.

The house only had two bedrooms, with Eren and Armin sharing the larger one and the bunk-bed that had been installed. Of course, Mikasa would have liked to have shared the room with her brother, but she respected that the boys needed their privacy. Besides, since seeing what he was capable of during the recovery of their hometown, Mikasa had opted to ease up on Eren just a little; the boy she’d grown up with had blossomed into quite the man, and as much as it pained her to admit, he didn’t really need her anymore.

Not that that was going to stop her this morning. After dishing up the omelettes she’d prepared for the three of them and setting them on the table, Mikasa let herself into her roommates’ bedroom. 

“Eren.” She called up at her brother, who was dozing away up on the top bunk. “It’s time to get up.”

Mikasa reached up to poke his face, which earned a groggy moan from the Titan Shifter. “I’m up…”

“Good. Armin, you too.” 

She moved on to the smaller boy, performing the same action until he too had started stirring.

“Breakfast is ready. Get up, both of you.” And with that, Mikasa took her leave, helping herself to her food as she sat down at the table to wait for them.

The boys joined her soon after, messy and dishevelled as they always were in the morning. Armin looked just a tad bit neater than Eren, his blond locks were slightly ruffled but were otherwise as smooth as always. He had also bothered to dress himself, as Mikasa had, whereas Eren was still wearing nothing but his pants and his precious key around his neck.

“You should put a shirt on, Eren. It’s cold.” Mikasa advised when she caught sight of him.

“It’s fine.” He responded, dropping down at the table with Armin. “You really didn’t have to do all this.”

“I agree.” Armin added, eyes widening at the layout of the table. The soldiers were usually all too busy with workout routines and other things to sit down for a meal in the morning like this, but the commander had granted Sunday off for everyone, save for those on Female Titan guard duty.

“Well I did anyway. So enjoy it.”

“Thank you.” Both boys said in unison.

The trio didn’t say a word to one another until about halfway through the meal, when Armin looked up from his breakfast to break the silence. “Hey, Mikasa. You’re on watch today aren’t you?”

“I’m on watch every day.” The raven-haired girl replied through a mouthful of omelette.

“That sucks.” Eren chimed in. “It’s our day off, we should all do something together.”

“We can. I’ll just have to leave you for a few hours.”

“Can’t you just ditch?”

“No.”

“Why?”

Mikasa stopped chewing for a moment, searching for an excuse. She knew the truth that she actually wanted to go spend some time with Annie wouldn’t fly well, especially not now that she was literally picking her over her brother. She knew she probably could abandon her post just this once, plenty of guards did, but for what; for Eren and Armin, whom she was with almost 24/7. As selfish as she was, she’d much rather be down in the dungeon watching Annie’s short but powerful legs shoot up to jam a hard foot into Mikasa’s open hand.

“She gets lonely.” Mikasa blurted out, the image of her prisoner’s body in action skewing her thought process. 

The other two soldiers stared wide-eyed at their friend like she was crazy. 

“What..?”

“She gets lonely and then irritable.” Mikasa recovered, trying her best to ignore the slight blush she could feel heating up her cheeks. “It makes her harder to negotiate with and get close to.”

“I thought you guys restrained her with chains?” Armin asked, an eyebrow raised.

“We do. But this is Annie, she’s dangerous no matter what.”

The boys exchanged a look, still apparently unsatisfied, but before anyone could press any further a loud banging from outside turned every head in the front door’s direction. 

“I’ll get it.” Mikasa announced as she stood up, extremely thankful to have an excuse to escape the conversation. She scurried over to the door, which was still in clear view of Eren and Armin, and cracked it open only slightly to examine the visitor. The door was opened fully almost straight after to reveal none other than the Commander herself standing on the soldiers’ doorstep.

“Commander Hanji!” Eren yelped, scrambling to his feet and smacking a clenched fist over his heart and lower back, as his two friends had already done.

Hanji took one look at Eren and grinned, always pleased to see her original Titan shifter. She couldn’t have cared less that he was standing and saluting her half-naked. “Good morning boys, Mikasa.” She greeted, looking back over to the girl in front of her. “I’ve got some news I’d like to discuss, may I come in?”

Eren and Armin’s jaws dropped so quick it was a wonder they didn’t fall to the floor. They both spluttered out a ‘yes’, and Mikasa made way for the woman to enter. Unlike her friends, the girl wasn’t surprised in the least to see the Commander at their door. She’d been spending a considerable amount of time with her ever since Annie’s emergence from the ice, in both the dungeon and her office, so it wasn’t all that strange for her to now be in Mikasa’s home.

And of course, it wasn’t all that difficult to guess what Hanji wanted to discuss.

“So, I’m sure you might be a bit shocked to see me here, but I assure you, I’m not going to ask to dissect you or anything like that.” Hanji began as she flopped down at the table next to Mikasa, across from the two boys she was currently speaking to. 

She made sure to look Armin straight in the eye, as it was very apparent how nervous the boy was. He was quite literally shaking in Hanji’s presence, beads of sweat breaking out on his face. It was no wonder; he’d been dreading the day Hanji started running her Titan tests on him, despite how much reassurance Eren tried to give him.

“Armin.” Hanji continued, reaching over to take his shuddering hand in both of hers. Her happy demeanour had been replaced with one of cold seriousness, rivalling if not topping Erwin Swith’s. “For humanities sake I need you to be brave. Over the next couple of weeks I would like you to join Eren in a series of activities testing your new Titan Shirting abilities.”

The blond gasped, and immediately opening his mouth to protest but a strong grip on his shoulder silenced him. Eren could already hear the words before they left his friend’s mouth;

‘I’m not strong like Eren’

‘I’d only be a burden’

‘I don’t know how’

“Armin, don’t say anything yet.” Eren started, his piercing green eyes staring deeply into the big blue ones opposite him. 

The blond’s lip quivered, and he was still softly shaking his head, but he didn’t speak. Hanji smiled her gratitude to Eren and looked back at Armin, squeezing his hand. “I promise you’ll be okay. If it appears that you are unable to shift to a reliable level or if Titanizing severely damages your body, we will abandon the operation and focus on Eren.”

“B-But…” 

“If Eren could do it, I’m sure you can too.” Mikasa added. “You’re one of the smartest people I know. You’ll figure it out in no time.”

Fully aware now of all three pairs of eyes on him, Armin sighed and bowed his head; the reality of the situation finally dawning on him. This really wasn’t about whether or not he thought he could do it, or whether he wanted to or not. It was simply about whether he could, or he couldn’t.

“Okay.” Armin breathed, those blue orbs flicking back up to meet Hanji’s warm brown ones. “I’ll try.”

“Thank you.” Hanji replied with a nod, squeezing his hand again before releasing it.

“I’ll be right there with you the whole time.” Eren assured, shaking his shoulder lightly before dropping his hand back on the table. 

Armin gave his friends a half-hearted smile, but it was still clear he was uncertain. Eren just hoped his mind would ease after his first Titanization. If he still felt like this after actually shifting for the first time, there was very little chance he’d ever warm up to it.

“Now, that leads me to my second piece. To put it simply, thirty days from now the 59th expedition will commence.”

“What?” Eren barked. “But we just took back Shinganshina!”

“Indeed, but it is still uninhabitable due to damages. Our operations cannot stop now when we are needed the most. Reiner and the Beast Titan and countless other shifters are still out there, and we must defeat them.”

“I don’t understand, shouldn’t Shinganshina clean-up be prioritized?” Armin asked.

“That is not a job for the Survey Corps, you see. The Garrison and the general public have taken responsibility for that. It is Titan-free and simply being rebuilt as we speak. Additionally, there are a number of reasons I have decided the Survey Corps will be preparing for an expedition instead of assisting them.”

All three soldiers stared at their commander expectantly, dozens of questions waiting right on the tip of each of their tongues.

“The priority goal of the expedition, like most of them in the past, will be to gather information about the Titans. However, we will be focusing on the shifters this time, mainly Reiner and the Beast Titan. Their capture is our main objective.”

Before any of the other soldiers could interject, Hanji continued. “The expedition will also be an opportunity to test Armin’s new Titan Shifting abilities in battle, if all goes smoothly with the test runs.”

Armin swallowed a lump in his throat, his new understanding of his role partially easing his nerves.

“And of course, the expedition will be used as a trial for some new scouting techniques I’d like to try. Erwin’s long distance formation will still be used, but there are some additional ideas of my own design we will be trying out.”

Hanji gave her soldiers a moment to process all the information, muttering to themselves briefly before Mikasa spoke up, expecting something else. “Is that all?”

“You’ve got good instincts Mikasa. No, we need to talk about Annie.”


	4. Persuasion

Now here was a conversation Mikasa could actually participate in. At the mention of Annie’s name, the girl had eagerly leant forward to rest her arms on the table, pushing her breakfast aside as she had somehow lost her appetite. 

“As I’ve already told you all, Annie’s day in court will be in about a month, a week after we hopefully return from the expedition.” Hanji began.

While she spoke, Armin excused himself and collected the plates from the table, listening but deciding he wasn’t quite needed in this particular conversation. Eren and Mikasa both had their opinions on Annie, despite them being polar opposite. Armin was mostly following the crowd with this one.

He continued to listen from the kitchen while he took care of the dirty dishes, which was only a few steps away from the table really. “I spoke to her last night and discovered that she had no desire to harm humanity, but rather, was forced into it.” He heard Hanji explain.

“That’s bullshit!” Eren barked suddenly, slamming a fist on the table. “She and those other two traitors are the enemies of mankind!”

“Eren, calm down.”

The boy’s head snapped over to glare at Mikasa so fast she was worried he’d break his neck. His eyes were blazing with an all too familiar anger, the faces of Petra, Oulo, Gunther and Eld reflected in that hypnotising green. “She murdered almost all of Levi’s squad, and a bunch of civilians too!”

“You assisted her in those murders, Eren.” Hanji told him with a grim face. “The blood spilt in Stohess District during the battle is as much on your hands as it is on hers.”

“I never wanted to hurt anyone. She did.” Eren growled back.

The commander sighed. “Eren.” She began, already exasperated. She was beginning to wish she hadn’t been so hard on Levi the day before, maybe he would have accepted her offer to accompany her today. The woman had no doubts her Titan-shifter would settle down after just one glance from that tiny but incredibly intimidating man. Unfortunately, she just didn’t quite have that ability.

But she did have the next best thing: Mikasa. Another Ackerman she was grateful to have with her now. They both knew this would be a lot for Eren to digest, and even if Levi was here to keep him in check, the boy was bound to get aggressive.

“It’s true that you saw Annie crying when you revealed her human form in her Titan’s nape, right?”

Eren cussed under his breath, but nodded.

“I believe that was because not only had she failed her mission, but all the lives lost in the process meant nothing, for either side. I’m almost certain she regrets her decision.”

The boy opened his mouth to retort, but Hanji cut him off. “Furthermore, she ratted her other Titan friends out to me last night, an act that would have almost certainly gotten them killed had they still not been revealed to us. So she obviously doesn’t care about them or the success of the goal they’re hoping to achieve anymore.”

“That just means she’s lost hope, she’s given up.” Eren snapped back.

“Not quite. She was actually assisting humanity by selling those two out. Now I’m not saying she’s on our side but she sure as hell isn’t on theirs anymore. Which means she’s ours for the taking, if we can get her on board.”

That was more than enough for the Yeager boy. He pushed himself up and stormed away from the table, ignoring Mikasa’s concerned questioning. “Do what you like Hanji, but I can’t support this. I’ll testify against you in court if I have to.”

“Eren…” Mikasa breathed, sad not only to see her brother upset but to learn that for once; she wasn’t on his side.

She couldn’t take his side in the courtroom. She couldn’t stand with him or support him; she had to speak against him. It broke her heart, but it was necessary. It wasn’t about Annie; it was about humanities’ survival.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mikasa didn’t have to look to know Annie was watching her as she strolled past the cell, potentially smiling, potentially scowling. In reality, the blonde held a blank face, conveying neither the surprise nor the happiness she currently felt after seeing Mikasa again so early.

“I’m here, you can go now.” A stern voice announced from outside her field of vision.

Annie could only listen as her current guard scoffed and shuffled to his feet, probably standing taller than Mikasa but it was very obvious who was towering over whom. 

“You’re not supposed to be here for another hour.”

“You can leave an hour early.”

The original guard stepped closer to Mikasa, their faces only inches away from each other’s now. “What if I don’t want to?”

“Then you can stay here and watch me rip Annie open, if you’d like. I do need someone to clean up the mess.”

The man grimaced, but before he could decide the clang of metal on metal rang out: a chain smacking a bar so fast it had probably dented.

"I'm not feeling very talkative.” The sound’s culprit added. “You’ll have to break all my bones and bleed me out before you get anything out of me.”

Mikasa felt a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, but she kept her cold gaze fixed on the shuddering man in front of her, daring him to disobey her now. As she predicted, the man simply shook his head and scampered out, leaving the two alone.

Dieter was a strange man, one Mikasa didn’t think very highly of considering the stunt he’d pulled during the 57th expedition. Had he just left his friend’s corpse behind, the rest of the soldier’s bodies could have safely made it back inside the walls. Had he thought things through, his other friend would still be alive. 

The incident had left him scarred, worsening his already deteriorating mental health day by day. By all standards he was unfit for the job of watching Annie, but he had insisted. Whether this was because he felt the obligation, or was just bored, no one knew.

Mikasa decided it wasn’t a topic to dwell on, especially now that he’d disappeared. She turned to Annie, both girls exchanging a small look of amusement before the atmosphere grew heavy once more. The guard let herself into Annie's cage, the other girl already in her signature fighting stance despite the extremely limited use of her arms. 

“Kicks, right?”

The soldier answered not with words, but with her palms, which she held out down in front of her; low enough not to cause strain to Annie’s legs, but far away enough from Mikasa’s body to keep her safe from her prisoner’s bullet like kicks. 

Safe was a bit of a stretch. Even when Annie began the exercise, Mikasa was forced to take a step back, underestimating the amount of power the small girl in front of her could dish out. The first kick had forced Mikasa’s hand back so fast it was a miracle the girl’s wrist hadn’t broken.

Noticing Mikasa’s surprise, Annie lowered her leg back down and frowned. “What?”

“You’re strong.” Mikasa answered the unspoken full question. “You’ve been living on next to nothing but you’re still fit. I’m impressed.”

The smaller girl smirked, her blonde locks falling over the side of her face as she shifted her stance a bit. “There’s some perks to the whole Titan deal.” She remarked, before sending another foot straight into Mikasa’s palm. 

The soldier was ready this time, barely even shifting as she absorbed the full force of the kick, noting that she would need some form of protection for next time to keep both their bones from breaking. Her legs were just so powerful, so strong, when combined with the hard bone of Mikasa’s tough yet soft hands, it was dangerous for both of them.

But Annie couldn’t have cared less about the danger. Like being punched by Mikasa, the pain only exhilarated her, reminded her she was still alive and still had blood flowing through her veins. Blood that was now pumping with each raise of her leg, each shark smack that resounded every time her foot collided with her guard’s palm.

Several attacks later and finally Annie cursed and stepped back, one foot raised above the ground as to not put pressure on it.

“What’ve you done?” Mikasa asked, returning her hands to her sides.

“My foot.” Annie hissed. “It hurts. I’m not used to kicking with it.” Rolling her eyes at Mikasa’s confused expression, Annie continued. “I usually hit with my shins.”

“Do that then.” Mikasa suggested with a shrug. She really was willing to do anything to keep Annie active. The more she thought about it, the more wrong it seemed to keep a powerhouse like her locked up down here with nothing to do. If she did one day re-join humanity like Mikasa hoped, then she’d need plenty of hard training to make up for weeks of sitting on her rear all day. Really, that was unnecessary.

“It’ll hurt. I use kick pads usually, not human flesh.” Annie answered, testing her foot by stepping down onto it momentarily. Under any other circumstance, it would have healed by now, but hours of uncontrollable and rapid healing after being bent, broken, and bled, had left her regeneration powers weak and slow. 

“It’s fine. I’m strong.”

“I know.” Annie retorted, somewhat harshly.

Mikasa frowned at Annie’s tone, lifting a hand up to rest on her hip as she awaited an explanation. When she didn’t get one, she simply shrugged and returned to her initial position, ready to continue the training.

“If you know, then you know I can take a kick.”

“No.” Annie growled, growing frustrated. “You’re too strong, it’ll hurt to kick you.”

“Won’t that just make you tougher?” Mikasa pressed.

Annie's face softened, or rather, returned back to its naturally bored expression, a very thin amount of sadness projected in her sullen features. “I don’t think I can get any tougher.”

Mikasa looked surprised for a moment, but soon understood exactly what Annie meant just by looking down into those icy blue orbs, half-lidded and sad like those of a veteran soldier. Her eyes reflected a story with little happiness, only murder, torture, abandonment and betrayal. But none of it had broken her. Not completely. 

She may be rotting in a prison cell with less than no hope of survival, but she was still as tough as they come. Mikasa had to admire it really, with the amount of trauma Annie had experienced, the girl should’ve really been losing it. Yes, her time in the dungeon was not without the occasional mental breakdown, but for the most part, Mikasa knew Annie just… Sat.

She sat still. She didn’t speak, didn’t move, just sat. Had she given up? Yes. But Mikasa sure as hell hadn’t.

“So why won’t you fight?” Mikasa demanded suddenly, her increase in volume surprising both herself and the other girl. When Annie didn’t answer, the raven-haired girl marched right over to her and gripped her shoulders, an action that made Annie want to both punch and slither away from the invader. Yet she stayed still as Mikasa held her, her angry blue eyes staring daggers up into the piercing grey ones above her, images of that fateful day flickering through her mind: Her fall.

“It wouldn’t do any good.” Annie muttered, avoiding Mikasa’s gaze.

“You talk as if you’re already sure of humanities’ defeat.”

“How do you know I’m not?”

Suddenly, Mikasa’s strong but soft hand latched on to Annie’s chin, a very unwelcome act. Annie growled but the soldier held on, forcing her prisoner to look her in the eyes. “If you are, you need to think again. We have the colossal Titan. And Levi, who almost killed the Beast Titan on his own. And Eren, the coordinate.”

Annie’s eyes widened in shock, and that was exactly the moment that Mikasa knew she’d won. This was how she’d get Annie. Not by force, not by persuasion. But like this:With the truth.


	5. Battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After about 234567 years I finally updated this b*tch yoooooo

Mikasa’s news had been nothing short of dominating Annie’s small life ever since she’d learnt of it.

It had been three days since Annie had been informed of her fellow Titan-shifter’s new-found control over the Titans, in addition to a few other vital morsels of food for thought. Included in this much-needed update on the outside world was a report on the progress humanity was swiftly gaining on the Titans: understandings of how the royal family comes into play, a few of Grisha Yeager’s secrets, hell, they’d even taken back wall Maria.

Annie was impressed. “Shit. I’m impressed.” She muttered to herself.

“What was that?” Today’s guard asked, leaning his head forward towards the bars yet keeping his back leant on the wall across from the cell.

“Nothing.” Annie responded, fishing a cigarette out of her pocket with slight difficulty imposed by her handcuffs. “Light this for me, will you?”

The guard, Dieter, sighed and trudged up towards the bars, beckoning Annie towards him with his hand. He was a harmless lad, albeit very odd. Annie remembered him from the 57th expedition, where both she and Dieter himself had caused a significant number of corpses to remain outside the walls, their final resting places not with their families, but right where they’d died.

It was probably because of that loss that Dieter had become quite the mess of a man; unfit for the Survey Corps and potentially even the simple task of watching the Female Titan, yet he did anyway. Like a certain other guard, Annie found him quite perplexing. 

Regardless of his strange nature, he still had the decency to light his prisoner’s cigarette for her, passing it through the bars back to her after holding it inside one of the wall-mounted torches for a few moments. Annie gave a small grunt in gratitude as she slipped the lit cigarette between her lips and returned to her cross-legged position on the bed, the one she’d moved out of a maximum of ten times across about seventy hours. 

“I could bring you a cigar if you want, not one of those pathetic things Hanji has the nerve to call a cigarette.”

“Isn’t that Commander Hanji to you?” Annie asked, irritated at the break in silence.

“Yes, but she isn’t here. So I can say, and do, whatever the fuck I want.” Said Dieter, rooted at that same spot in front of the bars.

Annie glared at him from the bed, as if he was somehow violating her personal space despite her lack thereof. “Fuck off.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll turn into a Titan and squeeze your tiny balls in my giant fingers until they pop.” Annie spat at him, puffing out a cloud of smoke as she did so.

Dieter made a grim face, before backing off the bars and back to his original positon at the wall. “Christ…”

“He won’t save you.” Annie muttered with a satisfied smirk, secretly wishing Mikasa were here to laugh silently with her like the emotionally unavailable hard-asses they were.

\------------------------

Outside of the dungeon, a separate, much more severe conflict was currently unfolding in the Shinganshina trio’s residence. However, this was not between guard and prisoner, but several guards, arguing over the rights of one prisoner in particular.

“If what Mikasa told me last night is true, then we have absolutely no reason not to continue with the operation.” Hanji insisted for about the fifth time in ten minutes.

Exactly what Mikasa had told was common knowledge throughout the whole military at this point, the soldier was in no positon to keep secrets, especially not ones like these. After that breakthrough with Annie, Mikasa had informed everyone of the female Titan’s new position of uncertainty, an uncertainty that the Ackerman girl was confident could be turned into an alliance.

Levi gently set his teacup down on the table, glaring daggers at the commander as she sat all the way across from him at the other end. “Even if it is true, she can’t be trusted. She will always be our enemy.”

Before Hanji could respond, Eren piped up from next to Humanity’s Strongest, sharing his belief. “She’s a monster, Commander. She killed thousands of us without a second thought.”

“That wasn’t her choice.” Mikasa growled at her brother, sitting next to him despite the difference in their opinions.

“Sure it was.” Levi replied. “If she didn’t want to harm humanity, she wouldn’t have. Simple as that.”

“Are you suggesting she should have traded her own life for our safety?” Hanji asked.

“Absolutely. One girl’s life isn’t nearly enough to repent for the thousands of human lives she stole from us.”

From opposite Mikasa at the table, Armin’s head continued to flick back and forth, his thoughts struggling to keep up with the arguments presented. As the only party with a neutral opinion, Armin was set to be the medium: at the end of the meeting, he was to be the one to decide what would become of the female Titan. Annie’s life rested in his hands. And the poor boy could hardly cope.

“This is pointless. Why can’t we just save all this arguing for the trial?” Mikasa demanded of both Hanji and Levi, although her anger was directed towards the latter.

Eren answered for him. “Because the trial is a whole month away. She has a whole month to plan an escape, we have to kill her now!”

“If she wanted to escape she would have done it by now.” Hanji sighed.

“That’s exactly how she wants you to think.” Levi seethed, taking a sip of his tea. “She’s earning your trust so you’ll eventually let your guard down. Then she’ll make her move.”

Mikasa stared at Levi like he’d gone insane. He was usually a relatively intelligent man, always level headed and rational to a degree, but this was just downright idiocy. “I see now why they call you Humanity’s Strongest. Because Humanity’s Smartest is clearly somewhere else.”

“I wouldn’t say somewhere else. Rather someone.” Hanji murmured, winking at Armin. It wasn’t that she wanted him on her side, she knew Armin was far too intelligent to be charmed into a decision. No, she merely wanted to make him feel secure, she knew the boy had been under a great deal of stress with the Titan tests approaching ever closer.

The blond blushed, but quickly turned his attention to Eren, who didn’t appreciate his sister’s comment. “This isn’t a contest of wits Mikasa, this is about our survival!”

“Which we can help secure, with Annie’s help.” Hanji responded calmly.  
“This is going nowhere. Armin, hurry up and tell us what we’re doing.” Levi interjected, directing everyone’s gaze to the boy.

Immediately Armin tensed up, his eyes falling first on the angry, determined gaze of Eren, then on the calm but firm expression of Mikasa. His two best friends. They were both counting on him to make the right decision yet again. While he might’ve nearly vomited the first time he’d been in a positon like this, the Arlert boy had seen too many comrades die, too much blood spilt, to get worked up over something like this.

“We don’t know what Annie is thinking. Anything she tells us should be taken with a grain of salt. She was working with the Beast Titan, after all.” Armin breathed, relaxing his shoulders. He watched Eren fidget slightly in anticipation, the nature of his friend’s words leading him to believe he’d emerge victorious.

But Armin had more sense than that. “But if she really is all the things Mikasa told us, then it would be a devastating waste to kill her before we at least try to get her on board. If Mikasa and the Commander see potential in her, then we need to try and unlock it.”

It was at that point that Levi angrily shoved himself out from underneath the table, his footsteps rattling his forgotten teacup as he stormed out of Hanji’s office. “When she goes berserk, you’ll have to kill her yourselves.”

“Excuse me.” Hanji sighed, trotting after Levi to prevent him from murdering anyone on his way home. “Sorry about this, guys. There won’t be any more meetings for a while.” She added, standing at the door.

While Mikasa and Armin reassured her that it was no trouble, Eren stomped out of the room without offering Hanji a single glance, much less a farewell.

The commander made a grim face as she watched her solider go, but did not say anything more as she left, closing the door behind her.

The very second she was gone Mikasa leapt up from the table and stalked right into Eren’s room, shoving him from behind and catching him by surprise.

“Oi! What the-“

“Get a grip.” Mikasa seethed, glaring daggers at her brother from across the room. “That’s our commander. Show some respect.”

Eren blinked twice, as if in denial of what he was hearing. Mikasa had always been there for him, emotionally and physically. She was his other half, his protector, his sister. Never had their relationship seen a crack like this, much less caused by someone unrelated.

Unable to tag his emotions, Eren chose the default of anger and snarled at Mikasa, lunging forward ready to make a grab; but before he could even move his hands into position he was flat on the floor.

“Wha-“

“Don’t make me have to tell you again.”

“Guys! Stop!”

Both the siblings’ heads turned to the doorway, where a dishevelled Armin marvelled at the scene before him; Eren lay on his back, pinned beneath his sister who was straddling his hips and pressing his wrists to the floor.

Both faces immediately softened at the sight of Armin’s; broken and close to tears. “We have enough on our plates as it is, can’t we save all this aggression for our real enemies..?”

Eren shifted his gaze back to his sister’s, the rage gone but replaced not with penitence, but with shock. She stared down, equally surprised at her own anger; strong enough to make her lash out at her most important asset.

Mikasa released her brother, muttering an apology under her breath as she did so. She shoved past Armin on her way to her own room, hiding the tears glistening in her eyes from both the boys.

Eren had tried to strike her. She had struck back. They had fought.

And all because of some girl.

___________________________________________

That night, Mikasa lay with her scarf between her bed and her pillow, her fingers wrapped in its warmth and tracing the irregularities in the fabric she’d memorised over and over.

Each movement of her fingers provided a different memory; from fond ones like the time they’d spent playing together, to conflicts such as the one they’d had tonight.

Mikasa couldn’t comprehend it. All this time, through thick and thin, Eren was her everything. She was willing to destroy anything that came between them, or caused him harm.

Annie was one of those things. She’d stolen Eren from her, lied to the both of them; all of them. Mikasa knew she should be jumping at the chance to rid her off this world forever. At the very least she knew she should be plotting her demise once the trial was over.

But she just couldn’t.


	6. Comfort

For the very first time, Mikasa felt lethargic on her way to her post the next morning. She had gotten ready and left the house before her housemates were even awake, partially to avoid the awkward tension leftover from last night and mostly because she simply couldn’t bear to face Eren.  
Truthfully she would have much rather spent the day curled up in her room with the door locked and absolutely zero human contact, but she was a soldier; she knew better.

Thankfully, the human she did have to contact while on duty was the one human she could face, one who was equally as fond of silence and peace. It was only for an hour, but at least it was an hour spent in the only environment Mikasa could cope with.

At least, that was what she had hoped.

“How long are you planning to keep me waiting?” Annie demanded all of a sudden, breaking the almost ten-minute silence streak that had been stretching since Mikasa’s arrival.

“Not today.” the soldier answered, not moving from her seated position on the bench, where she had never sat before. 

Annie trudged over from her bed to the bars, looking over to watch her soldier sit lazily at her post, as apathetic as she herself was most of the time. It didn’t suit her quite as much as it suited Annie.

“Damn. I was hoping we could get a routine going too.” 

“We will get a routine. I’m just not in the mood today.” Mikasa responded, wrapping her scarf over her mouth to signal her discomfort.

Annie pressed on. “Well too bad. I have to waste away down here 24/7 and you’re supposed to be my escape from that. Get off your lazy ass and-“

“How about you sit and be quiet before I decide to break both your legs you want so desperately to use?” Mikasa snapped finally, marching over to the bars to hiss her words directly into her prisoner’s face.

Annie smirked. “So she is still alive after all.”

Mikasa didn’t say anything, but spun around on her heel and groaned loudly, pressing her fists into the wall opposite the cell to keep from pressing them into someone else. All she had wanted was some peace away from the tension-thick atmosphere of her house. But even seemingly calm creatures like Annie had their demands.

Yes, her demands were within reason. But Mikasa was simply too irritable to comply with them.

“Tch.” Annie spat. “Poor Mikasa and her problems.”

No response.

It dawned on the female titan that Mikasa wasn’t made of stone like she appeared to be. Sure, she had privileges due to her position, but it wasn’t as if she lived in a world where giant monsters weren’t always trying to eat you.

“...Hey.” she tried, a tad bit softer this time. Mikasa still had her fists pressed to the wall, and it was clear by her body language that she was on the verge of tears. “You can tell me about it you know.”

“And what good would that do?” Mikasa hissed, turning back to face the blonde, her face taut with emotions it hurt Annie to see affect her. She almost wanted to apologise. Almost.

Instead, she shrugged and dropped her hands into her pocket, trying her best too look interested without seeming to care too much. “You’re obviously hurt. It might help to talk about it. And what better person to tell than the person who can’t tell anyone else?”

Mikasa moved to stand closer to the bars, close enough that she could reach out and touch Annie if she wanted. “What about all the other guards?”

Annie gave her a look.

The taller girl sighed and leant her forehead on one of the bars, an extremely relaxed gesture Annie was surprised to see. “Eren and I are fighting.”

“Oh.” Annie responded, unsure of what to do with that information. “That’s a shame.”

When the soldier didn’t answer her, she continued. “It’s about me, isn’t it?”

Mikasa knew Annie wouldn’t care either way, but she hated the thought of upsetting her with the truth that yes, it was because of her. Her guilt was already stacked to the ceiling with corpses and shards of the walls she’d helped break down, she didn’t need to know that she was the wedge between Mikasa and the most precious thing in her life. “No.”

“You’re lying.”

Annie saw the wince in Mikasa’s face before she could even try to deny it a second time. “Let me guess, you want to wait till the trial, he wants to kill me now.”

“Yes. Sort of.” Mikasa responded. “I don’t see the point in killing you at all, really.” 

“That’s surprising.” said Annie, smiling just a tiny bit.

Mikasa noticed this, and found herself struggling not to smile back. “Why?”

“I thought you hated me.”

“If I hated you, I wouldn’t have trained with you yesterday, or kept you fed. Or brought you this.”

Annie watched in delight as Mikasa pulled a bread roll from her coat pocket, leftover from her breakfast. She muttered a thank you as she accepted the food and immediately started wolfing it down, her hunger somehow accelerating to critical levels as soon as she spied the bread.

“Slowly, or you’ll get indigestion.”

This statement only seemed to hasten the rate at which Annie demolished the bread, and she made sure Mikasa took note of her disobedience. A smirk replaced the bread at Annie’s mouth; small, but playful. “You don’t have to tell me that. Who am I, the suicidal bastard or something?”

Instead of reacting to the ill nickname giver to her brother, Mikasa continued the jest. “You’re nowhere near as… Hot-headed.”

“Oh really?” Annie replied, a full-on smile threatening to make an appearance if she wasn’t careful. “Were you not there when I wiped out Levi’s squad?”

She winced as she completed the statement, suddenly worried she’d overstepped the mark. But Mikasa only let out a tiny laugh, completely unfazed. “Funny, you did it all looking as bored as you do while down here.”

“I’m not bored now.” 

Mikasa shifted closer to the bars, gripping them so her hands were just above Annie’s, that had also moved to hold the bars sometime between her snack and now. The two girls exchanged a glance, a true glance, different to the cold, emotionless stares they’d throw about before. 

“Me neither.”

 

For an incredibly tiny man; Levi’s walking pace rivalled that of a regular person of his height’s jogging speed. 

“Levi!” Hanji called out to the soldier as he marched through the township, his back to her. “Levi, please wait!”

“ _Piss off._ ” he muttered under his breath right as Hanji caught up to him, grasping his shoulder to halt his dash. “What.” he demanded.

Hanji took a moment to collect her breath before she continued walking with him; she’d practically sprinted to his side after she’d spied him outside for once. “Where’re you off to? Back to base?”

“Yes.”

“Oh great! You can-“  
Levi turned to face his superior as she skipped along beside him, eyes more bored than serious. “I don’t want to see that beast you’ve got locked up.”

“That beast, has a name. And I’m sure she’d appreciate your company.”

“Surely she knows I want her dead.”

Hanji grinned. “No, but you can tell her that yourself!”

Levi paused in his tracks, and turned his whole body towards Hanji. Although he had to look up to her, he never felt small around the woman. He considered her his equal in terms of value to humanity; he had great respect, and perhaps other feelings.

“You mean to tell me you want me to go and tell that depressed monster that I, the greatest damn weapon humanity has, wants her dead.”

Hanji reached down and scooped up the smaller man’s hand; and action he would have vigorously objected had it been anyone else. “Come on.” she began with a wink. “I think you might be able to give her some spark.” 

 

The sight Levi and Hanji were greeted to as they entered the dungeon was nothing short of outstanding: Mikasa, absent. But what appeared to be giggles resounding across the cold, moist walls.

“This place is disgusting.” Levi commented as he followed Hanji towards the cell, examining the moss growing in the cracks of the walls in disgust.

The commander ignored him: she couldn’t have spoken if she wanted to.

Mikasa had not only invited herself into Annie’s cell, but had both arms raised to block incoming kicks. She didn’t even spare Hanji a glance until she’d completed her count to fifty; only then did she signal Annie to stop and acknowledge the guests.

“Sorry, Commander.” said Mikasa, turning to face Hanji in a salute. Beside her, a red-faced, panting Annie half-raised her handcuffs in greeting.

“No, I’m sorry. Am I interrupting something? Why else would you be in this cell, Mikasa?”

The Ackerman girl’s eyes widened in fear for a fraction of a second, genuine worry that she’d taken it too far. After all, Annie was a prisoner for god’s sake! But the loud cackle Hanji let out immediately scared the fret away. 

“We were just practising some-“

“You girls are fine.” Hanji soothed. “I’m glad to see you getting along.”

“I don’t.” Levi stepped into view of the cells, leaning back against the wall exactly across from the cell, the opposite to Hanji, who stood excitedly close enough to the bars that Annie could punch her if she wished.

But Hanji wasn’t the one she wished to dig her fists into. Annie narrowed her eyes in Levi’s direction, rolling her gaze over his slumped, disinterested expression. He couldn’t pull it off like she could.

Mikasa’s gaze followed hers, so that both pairs of eyes were locked on Levi. He stared back, but only at one of them; and she returned his stare with enough chill to freeze him in ice.

“And why’s that, Levi?” Hanji asked, slicing the thick tension weighing down the air.

The man ignored the question, and directed his gaze to his fellow Ackerman. “Mikasa, get out of there. She’s filthy.”

“That’s our own fault.”

“No. If she wanted luxuries like baths, she wouldn’t have become humanities enemy.”

Annie moved to stand closer to Mikasa, stealing a look above her to read her face before speaking up. “I was born humanities enemy. And who said I _wanted_ a bath?”  
Levi made a ‘tch’ sound with his teeth and shook his head. “Hanji, can we leave? I hate hearing it talk.”

“Why’d you come here then?” Mikasa demanded a tad bit more aggressively than she’d intended, stepping forward a fraction.

“Oi, don’t get snappy with me.”

“Both of you, stop.” Hanji interjected, plucking the cigarette Annie had held out to her out of her fingers. She lit it on the nearest torch and passed it back, much to the amazement of the Ackermans.

“What? Everyone needs and escape.” Hanji answered the unspoken questions.

“Whatever. Let’s go.” Levi spat, signalling for Hanji to follow him as he took his leave.

The brunette rolled her eyes and offered the girls a weak smile. “Don’t mind him. He’s just paranoid.”

“Why did you bring him here, Hanji.” Mikasa asked, still somewhat vexed from the tiny man’s performance.

The commander only smiled and shrugged as she skipped away, raising far more questions than she’d answered, as always.

Mikasa watched her go, muttering something under her breath as she heard the loud bang of the dungeon door closing above her.

“She’s trying to make me hate Levi.” Annie clarified as she breathed out blank air; heavy and noxious with smoke. 

“That shouldn’t take long.” Mikasa seethed, gripping the object in her hand tighter. Tight enough that the owner of said object pulled her hand back and out of her grasp.

Instinctively Mikasa looked down and stared in awe at her now empty hand, eyes wide in confusion, but not from the fact that she and Annie had been holding hands.

She was simply confused that they weren’t still doing just that.


	7. Zeke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this is a boring one, sorry about that. Just fleshing out the story a bit, there's a lot more to come ;)

Levi continued to visit once a day for the following week, observing Annie’s gradual changes in behaviour triggered by Mikasa’s treatment. He was almost tempted to ban the girl from visiting Annie; already soldiers had reported snappy attitude and increased resistance during interrogations.

It was unacceptable. She was a prisoner, not a pet. She was not here to do tricks like what Mikasa seemed to be exercising, but to provide answers. The latter of which, she still seemed to have no intention to do, even after yet another week of being given the privilege of living by the military.

Hanji, however, remained optimistic, even after another week of no results. She recorded down every little update in Annie’s small world, from her drinking and smoking habits, to the variety of insults she would spit at her once she got annoyed of being constantly monitored.

“I wish we could give you some privacy, girl.” said Hanji one afternoon as she watched Annie and Mikasa throw ghost punches at each other in the cell. Annie’s cuffs had been removed only for Hanji’s short visit; she had earned the commander’s trust that she wouldn’t use the freedom of her hands to cause trouble. 

All she wanted to use her arms for was for real, authentic, exercise. Not those petty workouts Mikasa had been taunting Annie with this whole time.

“I don’t mind.” said Annie as she blocked yet another one of Mikasa’s fast but poorly aimed punches; she made a mental note to help her with that later. “I just wish the guards wouldn’t say such crude things sometimes.”

Mikasa caught Annie’s fist in her palm before it could collide with its intended target; her face. “What do they say?” she asked, eyes narrowed.

“Oh, nothing.” Annie said, retrieving her fist. “Shit like, ‘show me your boobs and I’ll let you go.’”

Hanji shook her head and sighed, making note of Annie’s statement in her book. She leant back against the wall, staring at her prisoner through the bars. She watched her body glide as fluidly as it had during that fateful expedition, the same one where she her very self, had held Annie at knife point while her team restrained her with rope.

Looking at the tiny girl in front of her now, it was mind-boggling to even consider that she and that monster, were the same thing.

“Annie.” Hanji asked suddenly. “Could I ask you something? Unrelated to what we usually ask you.”

“What is it.” the girl responded, without taking her eyes off her target as she readied her leg for a kick.

“How would you describe it, being inside your titan?”

A sharp smacking noise resounded in answer, echoing across the whole dungeon.

“Ow.”

Both girls remained in their position: Mikasa’s arm poised and ready to block, Annie’s shin pressed firmly to the arm in question.

“That was a good kick.” Mikasa stated, pulling her arm down to rest it in her other hand. She prodded at the skin, winced, and cursed under her breath. An injury. Great.

Annie didn’t apologise the pain she knew damn well she’d caused, and strolled over to the cell bars to talk directly to Hanji. “Couldn’t you just ask Eren that?”

“I did, and he gave me his response. But I want yours now. I want to know if the experience is different for seasoned shifters like you, Reiner, Ymir-“

“Ymir?” Annie echoed, one eyebrow raised in her signature bored but interested expression.

Mikasa and Hanji exchanged a mutual look of ‘you didn’t tell her?’ before turning both of their heads back to Annie.

“Ymir...” Hanji began, a somewhat saddened expression on her face. “Revealed herself to be a titan shifter to save Krista and the others one night, while under attack by a swarm of titans.”

“The wall was broken?” Annie asked.

“No. It was-“

“Zeke.” 

Of course it was. If there were titans but no breach in the wall, there was simply no other explanation.

“Zeke?”

An inexplicable frustration began to resonate within Annie; but not just because of Zeke’s actions.

Zeke, Reiner, Bertolt, they’d all left her here, frozen in ice. Zeke had been inside the walls, turned innocent people into mindless titans, and disappeared probably without even a single thought of rescuing her.

A scowl replaced Annie’s bored expression, and she made sure Hanji could see it to make note of in her silly little book. “Ever seen a Titan with fur?”

“The beast titan?” Hanji asked, flipping her book open and readying her pen.

“He’s tall and hairy and a huge asshole. That’s Zeke.”

Hanji scribbled the name down, that familiar excited smile spreading across her face as Annie spilled more about her Warchief, and her resentment towards him.

“He’ll be more interested in capturing Eren than they will be rescuing me. Idiots.”

“They did capture Eren.” said Mikasa, a grim expression registering on her face as the memories came flooding back.

“Ymir too.” Hanji added. “We got Eren back, but Ymir…”  
“She chose to go with them. She left Historia behind.” said Mikasa.

“Historia?” Annie asked, growing annoyed with how much she needed to catch up on.

“Krista. Historia Reiss, the new queen.” Hanji clarified.

“Wow.” said Annie, taking a swig from the hip flask she’d had to have refilled three times across the week.

“Historia… Misses Ymir very much.” Hanji sighed, her smile fading as she thought of the queen, probably re-reading that same note she’d received from Ymir for the fiftieth time.

Mikasa also turned her thoughts to the queen, whom she hadn’t seen for quite some time. She considered paying her a visit; they both had similar issues, it couldn’t hurt to talk about them.

Of course, a scrap with one of the boys you lived with was absolutely nothing to not even knowing where your partner is, and having no way to contact her.

“It’s okay.” The soldier piped up, turning both the other heads in her direction. “We’re gonna save her.”

Hanji frowned for a second, as if she wanted to disagree, but soon decided there was no point. “We’re going to try to. It’s very unlikely that we will save her, but we’ll try. For our queen.”

“For Historia.”

Annie watched the soldier’s display almost feeling physically sick. It wasn’t their righteousness itself that made her want to vomit, but rather what a waste it was, considering what they didn’t know.

She’s witnessed it herself, hell, she’d even taken part in it once. All of them had. It wouldn’t be long before Ymir did too.

Annie found herself staring at Mikasa for not the first time today, her eyes tracing every tiny detail of her face, from that scar on her cheek, to the slope of her jawline. Really, she was the perfect soldier. She’d leap straight into the battlefield completely unaware of the dangers that lay ahead. Mikasa was skilled; but Annie knew plenty of people who outmatched her.

If ‘people’ was even the right word.

“You can’t save her.” Said Annie, much to the others’ surprise.

“What?” They both asked in unison.

“You can’t save her.” Annie repeated, switching her focus to Hanji. “She’s probably already dead.”

Hanji took note of this statement in her book, a solemn expression on her features. “What makes you so sure?”

Annie fidgeted briefly, but soon gave up on battling herself. She was far too tired to even care about her safety at this point. “If Ymir can transform, that means she’s one of the Nine Titans.” She began. “Zeke wants all nine of them in his control. But he won’t be able to control Ymir, so he’ll have one of his warriors eat her to pass on her power.”

She paused to let Hanji note it all down, and ask her inevitable questions. “But how do you know Ymir won’t willingly join their side to save herself?”

“Maybe she will, who knows. But Zeke will make sure she’s eaten anyway. He can’t take any chances.”

“You have a lot to say about this Zeke character.” Mikasa commented, turning Annie’s attention back to her. 

The blonde recognized the look on Mikasa’s face; it was the exact same one she’d worn when she and those other two had tried to lure her underground to capture her. 

Back then it had been intimidating. Now, it was oddly comforting. Annie felt protected in Mikasa’s redirected hatred for someone other than herself.

“I hate him.”

“Don’t worry.” said Hanji with a satisfied smile. “That’s just another thing you have in common with us.”


End file.
